A Bicknell's thrush. The Center for Biological Diversity says it has reached a settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over protection of the rare songbird. / T.B. Ryder / USFWS

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| LISA RATHKE

Associated Press

MONTPELIER — A Vermont advocate for a rare songbird says her environmental group has reached a settlement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding endangered-species status for the Bicknell’s thrush.

The agreement gives the federal agency four years to decide whether the bird should be protected.

The Center for Biological Diversity says climate change threatens to destroy the habitat of the sparrow-sized bird, which nests on mountaintops in northern New England, the Adirondacks and eastern Canada. The group sued the Fish and Wildlife Service when the agency failed to meet a legally mandated 2012 deadline to decide if the thrush should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Mollie Matteson, the center’s Northeast representative based in Richmond, called this week’s agreement a “ray of hope.”

“Time is growing short for the thrush and its vulnerable habitat,” she said.

Meagan Racey, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast region in Hadley, Mass., said the agency has yet to see a settlement agreement and therefore couldn’t comment.

The center had petitioned the federal agency seeking protective status for bird, and maintained the agency was required by law to issue a decision one year after finding that the bird was being considered for endangered species status.

The federal agency completed a 90-day review in August 2012 and found that the habitat of the Bicknell’s thrush faces threats from climate change and forestry, energy, and recreational development such as ski areas.

The service then began a 60-day period when it invited more information on the bird and its habitat. Following that period, the service said it would issue a 12-month finding on the center’s petition, but never did. The Bicknell’s thrush also was not on the service’s listing work plan for 2013 to 2018, released in February.

The settlement gives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until fiscal year 2017 to decide on protection status for the bird.

The group has been settling with the Fish and Wildlife Service on many species in the past couple years, Matteson said.

“There’s been a lot of species that have languished in this kind of limbo land for many years with the service not making decisions, so actually, even though it is four years, it’s a good thing, because we know for sure that they will make a definitive decision,” she said.